Is having a .uk.com domain a hindrance for long-term SEO?

I know there has been some mention on Moz Q&A for .uk.com, but not for at least 3 years. So I wanted to see if any Mozzers out there knew if having a .uk.com domain would hinder our SEO long-term?

Our company is finally now taking SEO seriously and we're planning some great stuff for the year ahead, but I have a feeling that our .uk.com domain may prevent us from out-ranking some of the bigger companies out there.

A sub-domain acts like a normal domain, the problem you may find is people looking for your brand etc. so if they type out the URL and go to our company.com which could lead them to a different site etc. So in short you can still rank it fine though its perhaps a bit more complex, I would look at it from a user point of view and a branding perspective and go from there.

Personally I may agree with you on moving to a .co.uk (assuming you are aiming at UK markets) just so its not on a subdomain and its a bit easier to brand etc. but SEO wise its still possible to rank uk.com